


Perennial

by superdanganisland



Category: Super Dangan Ronpa 2
Genre: F/M, Flowers, Fluff, Gardens & Gardening
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-06-10
Updated: 2018-06-10
Packaged: 2019-05-20 11:37:19
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,471
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14893901
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/superdanganisland/pseuds/superdanganisland
Summary: Peko is tasked with an unusual assignment.





	Perennial

**Author's Note:**

> It's that time

Peko had been missing all morning, and he was starting get worried.

She wasn’t scheduled to train today. She wasn’t meditating in any of her usual spots. And she wasn’t tasked with any assignments – at least, not to his knowledge. Peko wasn’t normally one to disappear on him without letting him know first.

It was bothering him enough that he gave half a thought to asking about it, but his parents had guests over, and god forbid he breathe the wrong way when they had guests over – besides, friendly or not, it would be dangerous to imply that his personal bodyguard had gone missing when he didn’t even recognize who the hell they had over. All he knew was that the house stunk like cigarette smoke, and he needed some fresh air ASAP.

It was an unusually hot for an early summer afternoon, and he could already feel the harsh sunlight beating down on his face as soon as he stepped out into the courtyard. It was much quieter out here, where he didn’t have to listen to everyone in the house all shouting over each other and through the walls like they were in a crowded bar. He stopped near the edge of the pond to enjoy the rare moment of peace before noticing an unfamiliar scraping sound coming from a corner of the garden just out of his view. Curious, he stepped back onto the path to follow it to its source.

It wasn’t too hard to track down. Rounding the corner past one of the overgrown bushes, he was treated to an odd sight – there was Peko, back turned to him, hunched down on her toes near an empty garden bed surrounded in trays of plants and flowers of all varieties. If he had to guess, she’d been outside for a while, as he could see where the sunlight had begun to glisten off the back of her neck.

She rocked back on her heels to take a breath, then turned to grab one of the bags of dirt that was propped up nearby when he walked up behind her.

“Holy shit. Where’d all this come from?”

He didn’t realize she hadn’t heard him approach. She shot up so fast she nearly knocked over one of the plants sitting next to her. 

She provided her usual performance – a quick bow and a scripted “Good afternoon, Young Master,” and as usual, he waved it off.

“It’s just me,” he said calmly.

“Of course,” she said, wiping the back of her hand across her forehead. “I apologize if you’ve been looking for me. Is there something I can do?”

“Nothin’. I just wanted some fresh air, that’s all. Dad’s got some ‘friends’ over and they’re a pain in my ass. Can’t get anywhere in the house without them trying to make some kind of dumbass remark.”

“I understand.”

He looked down near her feet. “What’s all this?”

Her eyes followed his to the ground, as if she was surprised to see her own mess. On one side of her lay a smattering of black soil and empty plastic boxes, and on the other, an impressive assortment of flowers of all shapes and sizes, with no overall pattern to any of them, some newly planted in decorative pots and others still in their original trays. It was normal to see her do yardwork every once in a while, but nothing quite like this.

She returned to her kneeling position, forearms resting on her thighs. Her dirt-caked fingertips curled inwards towards her palms, as if she were trying to hide them. “Miss Natsumi decided she wanted to plant her own garden this year and sent me out for some supplies. The older lady who runs the stand a few miles down the road had a very nice selection to pick from.”

He cocked his head. “Natsumi? Really? Since when is she into gardening?”

“I’m not sure. But I noticed there’s been a certain TV channel she’s been watching a lot of recently. She mentioned she’d been some getting ideas for a new look in her room and picked out a color for me to paint it next week.”

“…What? No you’re not!” A groan left his lips, a sound he’d specifically reserved for dealing with his younger sister. He shook his head. “Peko, you don’t _have_ to take orders from Natsumi, you know. If she tries to get you to do her crap for her, just come get me.”

“It’s fine. I don’t mind doing this kind of thing.” She moved to grab the bag of dirt she’d started with.

“She’s not even helping…” he said, watching her cut the top off of the bag in one quick motion and pour the contents into the raised garden bed behind her. She did the same with another, working as efficiently as usual. Shameless as it was, he couldn’t help but always notice the way she moved – her perfect lifting technique made him look like an idiot. It was one of those things that had been drilled into him a hundred times - lift with your legs, not with your back - yet when it came down to it, he never made the effort to follow the directions properly, and he would always regret it the following day when his back was so sore he could barely move. It was one of the few things Peko tended to hound him about… as politely as she could, anyway.

(It was easy to put up with some back pain when she’d offer to rub his shoulders when she became aware of it, as much as he’d never admit it. It was strictly business, purely professional, “pain management” – whatever they wanted to call it.)

He noticed he’d been zoning out when she reached over for the third (or was it fourth?) bag. The remaining ones, an impressive amount of them still, were still stacked in a neat pile nearby. He suddenly realized that he, too, was doing nothing at all and watching her do all the work like an asshole.

“Here, I got nothin’ better to do. Let me get some of these,” he said, and took a step toward them. She wedged herself between him and the pile, preventing him from getting any closer.

“Don’t,” she said sharply. “I can take care of these.”

“Peko—”

“Please, Young Master, you came outside to relax. It’s no trouble for me.”

Her pointed gaze was enough to get him to back down. From experience, trying to reason with a stubborn Peko was like arguing with a wall, so he yielded. Not without a few more questions, though.

He cocked his head to the side. “How the hell did you get all this back, anyway? You didn’t haul this stuff all the way here by yourself, did you?”

“I took a taxi,” she said simply. “Miss Natsumi gave me almost 100,000 yen. I tipped him well for the trouble.”

“Wha—one _HUNDRED_ thousand? Are you serious?!” Peko dumped another bag of soil out into the raised garden bed behind her, unphased by his considerable uptick in volume. “If dad knew…!”

“I apologize. Should I not have done so?”

He rubbed the back of his neck. “N-No, it’s fine, since—”

Whatever he was trying to say suddenly got lodged sideways in his throat. He could have just said it wasn’t her fault because she was simply doing as she was told. Just going through the motions, like she didn’t have a say in the matter. No matter how he strung it together, the implication would be that she was just a servant—just ‘the help’, as his mother would say, a phrase that particularly raised his hackles. It wasn’t what he was trying to say, and it’s exactly what she would hear.

She’d paused, waiting for him to finish his thought. Her bright red eyes were turned up at him. He couldn’t focus, and instead turned his attention to a russet-colored dove perched near the perimeter.

Why was it so fucking hot out?

“I mean…” He pulled at his collar. “Natsumi’s got no fuckin’ clue how to handle money, you know? If she takes over this place… hell, we’d have to keep the checkbook away from her. We’d be bankrupt in a week.”

“But,” Peko began to say, voice lowered, like someone was listening in on them. They were alone, though one couldn’t be too careful when the family had visitors over. “…You are next in line to lead the clan, not Natsumi. Am I mistaken?”

Loosening his collar didn’t help when he felt like he had a noose around his neck. He didn’t want to think about this right now, not when he’d come outside to clear his mind and enjoy the garden. It was the one place he didn’t have to be constantly reminded of his family and his responsibility, where he could sit outside and watch the water ripple and listen to the birds and let the sun heat up his face until his cheeks burned red. This was all supposed to be his one day. Though the courtyard was impressive by anyone’s standard, he knew it wasn’t as well-kept as it had been when they were younger, with wiry strands of ivy trailing up and down some of the walls and choking out some of the smaller bushes that used to bloom so nicely in the spring. He wished it could be as nice as he remembered.

Peko’s eyes remained fixed on him. Her expression was intense, awaiting his reply. His family had created that look. He hated that look.

“Well…. yeah, I guess,” he said, voice trailing off. “That’s what they say.”

He pretended to be interested in whatever was to his left, and again found the turtle dove he’d focused on before. It was common to see them here in the past, and the hot ray of sunshine that’d found it made it almost appear to glow. One would never guess that this garden belonged to one of the biggest and most dangerous crime syndicates in Japan – until his eyes moved down and discovered the bird he’d been staring at was preening itself atop a mounted security camera that had been covered in ivy. He didn’t know how many more there were, and preferred not to. The dove picked at its feathers, oblivious to the fact.

Fuyuhiko snapped his attention back at Peko. “…So, what kinds of flowers did you get?”

“A-Ah, I...” A crack formed in her stony expression. Her head swiveled around at all of the plants surrounding her before stumbling out a weak answer. “I don’t really know all the names…”

“Huh? Didn’t Natsumi give you a list to buy or something?”

“No,” she said.

“…Oh.” It was quiet. He took a few steps, then leaned down to take a closer look at some of the trays spread out next to her. “So… this is all stuff you picked out?”

“No, I only bought what I thought would be a good fit for the family’s garden. My preferences were not a part of it.”

“Oh yeah?” He picked up one of the pots that stood out to him, a single pot that featured a large succulent-looking plant surrounded in a dozen miniature versions of itself. He yanked the tag out and inspected it, and the corners of his mouth curled into a wry smile. “Really? So you expect me to believe you picked out a plant called “ _Hen and chicks_ ”, just by chance?”

She wasn’t looking at him, eyes pointed towards his feet instead. “I’m not sure what you mean...”

“It sounds like something you’d pick out, is what I’m saying.” He flashed the tag towards her mischeviously, seeing if she’d react, then set it back down with the others. “Peko, honestly. You act like I don’t know you.”

She didn’t respond, but he noticed instead of her usual flat expression, her mouth had twisted into some sort of crooked shape, like she didn’t know what to do with it. She watched him wide-eyed as pored over the rest. Fuyuhiko meandered around, stopping at a few of the individual trays of flowers to check them out.

Peko had always told him her favorite color was black, but he’d have never guessed it by the rainbow of flowers she’d picked out - a plethora of bold reds, purples, blues and oranges, even a few pinks. However, he did have to give her credit that she’d managed to find probably the only black flower in existence – an impressively dark-hued petunia – and of course bought it, in predictable fashion. If there was any doubt left that she’d picked these out herself, that took care of it.

“This is probably an odd assortment,” she interrupted, seeing him staring oddly at the pot of black flowers. “I was not sure what I was doing.”

“Well, hey, I don’t know shit about flowers or gardening either, so whatever. These are really cool. Er… pretty, I-I guess I should say.” He was never good at compliments, and it was never more obvious than when he tried. “They’re pretty cool. Yeah.”

It was a good thing Peko was just as bad at receiving them. “You should find some shade, Young Master,” she said, despite the fact that the sun was doing her no favors either, cheeks burning brightly in the midday heat.

“Too late,” he said as he knelt down next to the few remaining bags of dirt that hadn’t been touched yet. He was wearing his good dress pants, and his mother would yell at him for getting them dirty, but he’d deal with that later. Peko knew this too, but she didn’t stop him. “Here… if we finish this before Natsumi comes out here, it’s pretty much just your garden, since you picked out all the flowers and did all the work. Right?”

“T-That’s—”

“That’s my rule. Natsumi can say it’s hers, and the family can think it’s hers, but you and I will know better,” he said, and took his blazer off and threw it into the grass. “So pass me one of those fuckers. Let’s hurry.”

Her expression softened, and with the two of them alone in the garden, far removed from the talk of business and politics and noisy visitors and cigarette smoke, she replied, “Yes.”

He didn’t realize what he’d gotten himself into until she handed him one of the bags. She’d been making it look effortless, and he had to hide the fact that he was straining to hold his grip even though it was only in his hands for a few seconds. He quickly spun around to dump it out.

“You shouldn’t twist like that when you’re lifting,” she said right away.

“I know,” he replied, and she didn’t bother him about it again.


End file.
